Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison after he held his daughter, Elisabeth, captive for over two decades
The case involving Josef Fritzl remains one of the most disturbing and widely discussed in modern history. Authorities revealed that he secretly confined his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, in a hidden space within their home in Austria for many years.
From 1984 to 2008, the convicted rapist sexually abused his child and forced her to give birth to seven children, one of whom died as a newborn. Three of them were raised upstairs with Josef and Elisabeth’s mother, Rosemarie, while the rest lived for 8,516 days in the locked underground compound until they escaped. Rosemarie was reportedly unaware that Elisabeth was locked in the cellar of their house and believed she ran away to join a cult.
Their story of survival partly inspired the 2010 novel Room, which was adapted into a film starring Brie Larson five years later, and Josef was charged with coercion, deprivation of liberty, incest, rape and enslavement of Elisabeth and murder of her newborn son, Michael, by negligence, the BBC reported. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2009.
So, where is Josef Fritzl now? Here’s everything to know about the convicted rapist and kidnapper’s life 18 years after Elisabeth and her children escaped his captivity.
Josef began sexually abusing Elisabeth when she was 11
Josef lived with his family in Amstetten, Austria, where Elisabeth was born in 1966, according to The Guardian. A year before her birth, he was arrested and charged with raping a 24-year-old woman at knifepoint, per The Telegraph.
He was also suspected of attempting to sexually assault a 21-year-old woman, as well as being involved in several missing persons cases and four murders. In one of the suspected murders, the victim was a 17-year-old girl who resembled Elisabeth, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Josef began sexually abusing Elisabeth when she was 11 years old.
In 1984, he trapped her in their basement and claimed she joined a cult
After spending two or three years constructing a soundproof cellar beneath the family home, Josef lured his 18-year-old daughter downstairs under the pretense of helping him install a door, per Sky News. He then held an ether-soaked cloth to Elisabeth’s face and carried her unconscious body into the hidden space. Authorities later said he began sexually abusing her within days of her captivity.
To cover up her absence, The Guardian reported that Josef told everyone that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult. He even had her write letters home to support the made-up story, in which she told her parents to stop looking for her.
Josef forced his daughter to have seven children, raising three upstairs
Elisabeth gave birth to seven children while in captivity. Michael experienced breathing difficulties and died within 66 hours of his birth, The Independent reported. Josef later admitted to incinerating his remains.
Lisa, Monika and Alexander were brought upstairs to live with Rosemarie by Josef, staging three separate scenes to make it appear Elisabeth had left the babies on the doorstep with a note asking her parents to care for them. Kerstin, Stefan and Felix remained imprisoned with their mother.
He was caught in 2008 after Kerstin fell ill
Elisabeth and her three children escaped in April 2008, after she convinced him to take then 19-year-old Kerstin to the hospital after she had fallen ill, The New York Times reported.
When Josef revealed to nurses that Kerstin’s mother was Elisabeth — believed by police at the time to have run away with a cult — doctors made a televised appeal for her to come forward, which she watched from the television in her basement prison. Days after Kerstin was taken to the hospital, Josef agreed to take Elisabeth to see her.
On April 26, 2008, he was arrested at the hospital on suspicion of sexual abuse.
Josef was sentenced to life in prison
Following his arrest, Josef was charged with coercion, deprivation of liberty, incest, rape and enslavement, as well as negligent homicide in the death of Michael for failing to seek medical care, per the BBC. Though he initially pleaded not guilty to enslavement and murder, he changed his plea to guilty on all counts just days into the trial.
According to The Guardian, he reversed course after watching videotaped testimony from Elisabeth detailing the abuse. “It was only yesterday I realized for the first time how cruel I was to Elisabeth,” he said in court. “I had never realized it before.”
On March 19, 2009, Josef was sentenced to life in prison and was ordered to be detained at a secure psychiatric institution.
Where is Josef Fritzl now?
Since 2009, Josef has been serving out his life sentence at Stein Prison, a secure psychiatric jail in Austria. He’s remained estranged from Elisabeth and most of his family, including Rosemarie, who divorced him in 2012. Despite this, he expressed his desire to reconnect in a May 2023 interview with The Sun.
“I do understand people who want me to die in jail, but I want to experience freedom one day,” the convicted rapist said. Josef also maintained that he “definitely” believed he would see his family again one day and detailed a health regimen he claimed would allow him to live to the age of 130.
After he was moved from the psychiatric facility into a normal prison in 2024, his lawyer applied for release, per the Austria Press Agency. Attorney Astrid Wagner argued that he had progressive dementia and should be moved to a dementia center that is “a better place than prison.”
The Krems Regional Court denied his motion in October 2025. The following month, Wagner filed a new appeal, noting that she had found an appropriate facility for Josef. The application was once again rejected, per News.com.au.
Josef’s lawyer has since filed another appeal, telling local outlets that her client dreams “every day” of having his own home.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
